To Infinity And Beyond: The CIMA Launch Pad 2018 Finale

If you’ve been following the CIMA Launch Pad 2018, you would have known that following the preliminary rounds, there was also a workshop on design thinking and the fundamentals of marketing. Why was this important? Because everything that the participants learned here would help them for the final round of CIMA Launch Pad 2018.

Launching the FInals of CIMA Launchpad 2018

Held on the 3rd of November 2018 at Hatch, the final round of the CIMA Launch Pad 2018 saw 6 teams making their pitch to a panel of judges. With a welcome speech and a look back on what took place during CIMA Launch Pad 2018, the teams prepared to make their pitches. Each team would be allocated 7 minutes for their pitch. A further 10 minutes would be allocated for the judging panel to ask questions.

Direct Pay

Team DirectPay making their pitch

From Disrupt Asia to Seedstars to winning Gold at the NBQSA, we’ve seen Direct Pay at almost every competition. If you didn’t already know, Direct Pay offers a cashless payment platform that uses QR codes by merchants. So rather than spending time writing cheques or figuring out cash flow, you can simply scan a QR code and the funds would be transferred almost instantaneously.

Avina

Team Avina presenting to the judges

An acronym for Artificial Virtual Intelligence and Natural Advertisement, Avina is a device that makes use of holographic projection to showcase a product. Simply upload an image of what you want to showcase via the cloud, and the device will generate a 3D hologram of it. They aim to generate revenue either by selling the device or renting it out. Right now, the team is focused only on showcasing what it can do rather than marketing it. The judges advised them to switch tactics as the company had not been getting any revenue for the past 12 months.

Ananke IoT Solutions

Ananke IoT Solutions making their presentation

The startup wants to make IoT implementation easier. To that extent, they have an IoT platform designed to empower developers to design, create and deploy enterprise-ready IoT Applications easier and faster. They also have pre-configured IoT stack and core functionalities that process communication, machine learning, and real-time events. People can also develop IoT software, hardware, and services and publish them on the Ananke App store. This can help developers create additional revenue streams.

KitGro

KitGro making their presentation to the Judges

Another startup we saw at Seedstars Colombo 2018, KitGro is an e-commerce startup that focuses on kitchen items and groceries. They’ve partnered with over 100 vendors and 3rd party delivery services. They’re also focusing on micro vendors rather than the big retail chain names. In terms of revenue, KitGro would have a registration fee, daily/monthly subscription, and a 10% transaction fee. The team also plan to implement a review section where users can post their feedback about the quality of service from vendors and the quality of the goods themselves.

Infinity

Infinity making their presentation

Dubbed the Digital Affinity Manager, Infinity by Rational-X offers a gamified loyalty platform for customers. Rather than having a physical card that you carry with you, Infinity would take the form of a mobile app. Simply make a purchase and show the QR code on your Infinity app and you can earn points and even get discounts. In addition, because it’s a mobile app, the company says that they would send notices of offers and discounts via in-app notifications rather than text messages.

Viduhala

Viduhala being presented at CIMA Launch Pad 2018

The last team to make their pitch at the finals of the CIMA Launchpad 2018 was Viduhala. Their goal is to be a leading eLearning Solution Provider. To that extent, their product is fashioned around delivering digital content to school children, specifically to grade 5 scholarship students. The content is interactive and is a gamified approach to learning. According to the team, a significant problem with providing educational content is that its more about the hardware such as donating computer Labs and PCs, rather than focusing on the content.

Discussions on Innovation, Design, and investments

Following the pitches at the finals of CIMA Launch Pad 2018, we had a Panel Discussion. The panel consisted of Heminda Jayaweera – Co Founder of Venture Frontier Lanka, Hasith Yaggahawita – CTO of 99X Technology and Co-Founder of IgniterSpace along with Fayaz Huddah – Founder of Spiralation.

The discussion revolved around topics such as Innovation and entrepreneurship, design and the startup ecosystem in Sri Lanka. Hasith explained that entrepreneurship is management. How so? Well, entrepreneurs should be able to manage empathy to make a viable business model.

The Panel Discussion in full swing

Another topic that the panelists discussed was about design? How much of thought should an entrepreneur apply to a product in terms of design? To this, Heminda and Hasith explained that the first step in design is to admit that you don’t know something. An entrepreneur should know what they know and don’t know. Once they admit that, they can go about finding ways to make their product work.

So you have a well-designed product and you need investors. But how do you draw the line between finding the best investor and the investor you need? To that, Heminda, Hasith, and Fayaz all agreed that the best course of action is to have more than one investor.

Having one investor means that they can always call the shots and sometimes even change the end result of your product or service. All because they fund you. But if you have two or more investors, they all have to reach an agreement. So even if one investor drops out, you still have at least one more to fall back on.

Crowning the Winners of CIMA Launch Pad 2018

With the Panel discussion wrapping up, it was time for the judges to come back to their seats. After much deliberation and discussion, they were ready to pick the best of the best for CIMA Launch Pad 2018.

The Winner, 2nd Place and 3rd Place of CIMA Launch Pad 2018

Coming in at 3rd Place was Direct Pay. They would receive 6 months of free co-working space from Hatch. This included access to Mentors and logistics as well. Coming in at 2nd Place was Ananke IoT Solutions. They too got 6 months of Co-working space at Hatch along with a 6 month listing on Crowdisland’s platform. The Winner of CIMA Launch Pad 2018 was Viduhala. They received a 6-month acceleration from Hatch, 6 month listing in Crowdisland and also received a Technology Package from Konnect.

And there you have it. That’s what happened at the finals of CIMA Launch Pad 2018.